Richard

I think there are issues relating to the ride's age, however nothing that is dangerous. However, it's probably time significant time is spent retrofitting the ride and bringing much of the technology up to date, if not for anything other than to make it a more efficient and comfortable ride.

Staff who load the trains aren't in a position to accurately nor efficiently guage the height of riders who are entering. It's something that does need to be checked and enforced by someone. A key benefit of doing it here rather than at the end of the queue before boarding is it gives the park the ability to inform people they can't ride before they queue, which will reflect well on the park and at the end of the day act as good customer service. With the speed over the top hat, as joz mentioned the ride was faced with a very tight footprint and fitting in as much as they can. The amount of G-forces and the amount of time they are experienced for is identical to that of Xcelerator and other Intamin rocket coasters. Quite simply, they opted for a slower, tighter top hat, versus a faster and bigger one. Personally I like the way it creeps over and into the drop.

I believe it was redone in the last year or two. It really is a welcome change on the old one, which was just plain poor. These photos were taken a day or two before Australia Day.

Forum member Tom Ragen (tom) has done a great effort putting together a video of off-ride footage of Superman Escape. The video footage can be seen here: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/videos.php?vid=19 Like all new video footage, subscribers and non-subscribers alike can view and download the video. Enjoy, I'm sure tom as well as myself would greatly appreciate any comments regarding the video.

There are now 15 new galleries showcasing all of the rides and attractions of Luna Park in Melbourne. Included in the galleries is a comprehensive look at Scenic Railway, with over 20 photographs of the ride in action. http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/gallery.php?pid=6

No problem as far as I've ever experienced. I personally have better things to do than frantically look at my watch all day while in a theme park to race back when the hour is up to change it. Especially when I've paid a large amount to get into the park and want my money's worth. Most guests would be the same. I too would be interested in how the regional parks (Cedar Point etc.) deal with belongings on rides with load/unload stations. The difference would be a cheap commuter with a desk job can sneak out every hour while still being paid to renew their parking. A theme park guest has paid $60 to be there. To maintain a free locker they would end up spending I'd estimate between 10 and 15 minutes to get from where they are, back to Superman, change lockers and continue on to where they were originally going. All up there's two hours out of the theme park day gone. It effectively cost them $15 to keep that going. We can go further and suggest that because they're not out riding rides, sitting in shows, littering or watching street performances, they're saving WVTP money. At any rate, if anyone did try this, they'd tire of the huge effort within an hour or two and either hire an all-day locker, carry their belongings with them or leave them in the car. What strikes me as odd is that they are so adamant that they are right, according to Adam's email. It is hugely successful at Universal's theme parks, yet with no actual evidence (it is "their belief") WVTP dismisses the idea. They love to steal theming concepts from USA parks, why not steal some operational techniques while they're at it?

Height is irrelevant because terminal velocity is the maximum velocity an item can reach in freefall, even if aided (eg. thrown towards the ground). The only thing height will dictate is whether the object actually reaches that speed, so in effect height can only lessen the impact force. You're right that terminal velocity varies. In this case I was talking specifically about the terminal velocity of a penny, which would be roughly same as that of an Australian 5c coin (the difference would have a negligible effect on the outcome). My point wasn't so much that it's OK to be hit by a coin, because it won't hurt that much, more so that guests are forced into purchasing a locker based on the misleading information that a 5c coin is dangerous. It's also interesting that they aren't as concerned about such loose items on Lethal Weapon (I've never been questioned by two different attendants as to whether or not I have any loose items on my person), or Scooby-Doo where riders are forced to take all belongings on with them if they haven't left them with a non-rider. Same goes with Wild West Falls. I'd say these rides would all pose an equal threat if a rider lost say a mobile phone. The only difference I can really see is they found a way to charge riders a dollar with one ride, but didn't with the others. To add to what Gazza said about sending a park any kind of communication, speak for youself and not others.

I wonder how true this now is, from an ACCC perspective, now that guests without non-riding family or friends are unable to ride this coaster without paying a fee, however nominal it might be. Can someone enlighten as to how strict the item policy is? I haven't tried, but maybe someone who has, can tell us if you're able to get a wallet on the ride in a zippered pocket (where it has no chance of coming loose)? What about guests in thongs - I'm sure the park's insurance or workplace health and safety requirements can't have guests barefooting it from the lockers to the ride? Interestingly, I decided I'd do a bit of research on the terminal velocity of a United State penny, a coin which is more or less the same size as our 5c coin (and weighs 2.5g, compared with 3.24g for the 5c coin). Every study I have found has concluded that a penny striking someone's head on its edge at terminal velocity will not injure a person aside from maybe a slight superficial sting, and of course if it lands any way other than edge-first, the impact force will be dramatically reduced. It seems having a person hire a locker under the premise that a 5c coin is dangerous on the ride is somewhat misleading sales advice - especially when coupled with the fact that they let us on with a hankerchief in a pocket - which brings us back to the ACCC.

From a blocking perspective, this ride could operate at least three trains, but it wouldn't add to the capacity of the ride. Fact is, it's a ride that is designed to operate two trains, and no less. If two-train operation is only for peak times, then why invest in a two-station system? Peak season is around a quarter of the year. Are guests in the other three quarters of the year just expected to put up with inefficiency from the system because they're trying to save money? There really is nothing quite like telling a paying customer who has waited 45 minutes - an inexcusably long waiting time for any ride capable of higher capacity - that they're trying to save money by only running one train. So much for customer service. The first place I'd go to save money would be remove the ridiculous locker system. With a properly thought out belongings storage system, they could do away with one attendant (two on busy days). Over the period of a month this saving would easily outweight the savings of only operating one train. The real problem - and this goes with theming just as much as it does efficiency - is that once it's in place, that's it. Nine times out of ten they won't come back to fix shortcomings because it's done and paid for. The advertising programme has been a success and the ride has done its job. Very rarely is there anything that can be done post-installation that is actually value-adding, especially when it comes to theming.

Everyone is welcome to bring along family and friends. Likewise, if you can't, or don't want to, you don't have to stay all day. If you just want to pop in for a while and say hi that's completely fine. I'm sure we'll get a few more people attending on the day. It works just as well if we have a small group or a bigger one.

I agree. A queue is so much more bearable if it moves. If you're not moving forward every minute or so then, regardless of train size or capacity, it's not a terribly well designed ride. It could be one step or it could be 10 metres, but there needs to be a constant flow. I really think two things need to be addressed by Dreamworld. Adam pointed out their lack of true family rides - rides that can be enjoyed by everyone. I don't think the answer is to balance out thrill rides ("adult"-only rides) with Nick Central (children-only) or Wiggles World (toddler-only), but rather to compliment the thrill rides with broader attractions the whole family can enjoy, especially now that the younger kids now have plenty to do in the park. The second is concentrating on smaller rides of the different genres that add depth to the park's attractions. If we were to visually represent a theme park's activities, you could do it with the a three dimensional chart. Width represents the different age groups, from toddlers to children to families to the thrill market. Height represents drawcard attractions - major investments that bring mass attention to the park. The final aspect is depth - there needs to be enough to do for every guest of every demographic, i.e. quantity of attractions. Second is adding more smaller attractions. Our parks need to get away from the thinking that it has to be the biggest or the best and break up the lengthy periods between major rides with several smaller attractions that will do much more for the park long-term than the big ones do. The Claw was a move in the right direction, but they played that as a major ride. To add to what rabid said before, theming does matter and guests do notice, but this isn't to say that it's vital. I'd rate just making a ride look good, with adequate landscaping and well-constructed surroundings over a fully themed attraction anyday.

They've been leaning towards compact designs, See Tivoli Gardens' Dæmonen for a great example of that - 28m tall with a track length of under 600m. That's more or less the size of Sea World's Corkscrew. Though it goes without saying that B&M really excel at their large-scale multi-loopers. If we're talking compact coasters for Dreamworld, I'd sooner see one of Maurer Sohne's Xtended coasters. Adding this third dimension (rotation) to coasters really is the future for compact cosaters. I certainly wouldn't expect Dreamworld to install a looping coaster (eg B&M) that is smaller than Cyclone because there is significantly reduced marketability.

This latest major change to the site will bring many new features to your screens in a bigger, brighter and far more organised Roller-Coaster.com.au. In just two short years we have gone through four different layouts, each one a drastic change from what was there before. It's certainly not my intention to do so many makeovers of the site, but with the way the site has grown and evolved it has been vital. The key motives behind the current site design for instance was to a) add much-needed colour and graphical components to the site, rearrange the site so there was adequate room for the Opinions system, c) increase the searching power of the site and database navigatability and d) allow for easy integratio of the Subscriptions system. I believe the latest look brings together some of the best features from each incarnation, making for a far superior site that's easy to get around, easy to look at and most importantly has all the content displayed in a very user-friendly way. Some key features include: A more unified look throughout. Use of popups for user interactivity (adding reviews, using the ride counter system etc. - NOT advertising popups) More integrated linking between park/ride profiles and relevant articles and media. Greater access to user-driven content. It will now be far easier to add and edit content on the site to keep the database up-to-date and accurate. A more dynamic design which means the site can make slight seasonal changes to reflect happenings in the industry etc. Aside from a new design, there will also be a far greater benefit of these changes. We have decided to bring the site to Australia where it belongs (currently it is hosted in the United States). Though it's certainly not slow to load at the moment, bringing the site to the Brisbane datacenter will result in huge increases in speed and efficiency. The new sever is a Dual-XEON system with SCSI (RAID configured) drives and 2GB RAM. This move will make the site virtually seamless to run for Australian users, and will eliminate 99% of outages.

Good find. To be fair, Vekoma probably spent so long developing that "Bayern Curve" (now that's a unique element if there ever was one) that they weren't able to give full attention to making it the smoothest and quietest coaster in the world. I'm sure that's what it was... I never really understood the whole "sitting on the outside of the rails" thing. What's that supposed to mean?

I was just saying that the general public can tell the difference between different coasters, and it wouldn't take long for word to get out that a ride is that much better than all the rest. That said, I would absolutely support the idea of a B&M at Dreamworld. Truth be told I see little other direction they can go in terms of large scale coasters, short of out-everythinging Movie World by installing a bigger, better Accelerator. I think now, 15-odd years on from B&M's introduction, it's just a matter of time now before one of our parks pulls out the big guns, and I think it could be one of the boldest and most rewarding moves in Australian theme park history if pulled off well.

The date of March 18 has been decided for the Warner Bros. Movie World meetup. We will meet out the front of the park from 9:00-9:30am on Saturday 18 March. Aim to be there by 9:30am, so we have time to meet, figure out who's in the group and give extra time if anyone is late. Now what we need is a list of people expected to attend. Please post here if you will be attending so we can get a names list going. Also let us know if you have vouchers that can be used with other members. If you are coming from interstate also post this. The thinking is if we get some interstate members coming, it'll be good to do a two-park meetup. If it's just locals it might not be worth the additional effort. But we'll discuss it and see how it goes.

The date of March 18 has been decided. Direct all discussions on the meet to this new thread: http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/in...?showtopic=2364

There was an error with attachments that has since been fixed. Everything should be fine now.

I disagree. From my experiences overseas, I would say that the general public can tell that a B&M is more than just another coaster. Though they've become quite common in America, it's not hard to see this in action when at the same park on the same day, a B&M and an Arrow coaster of more or less the same age have an hour's difference in queues. I'm talking about Viper at SFMM (versus Batman: the Ride), so not some undermantained little coaster that everyone's forgotten about.

The date of March 18 has been decided. Direct all discussions on the meet to this new thread: http://www.parkz.com.au/forums/in...?showtopic=2364

The two-year anniversary of Roller-Coaster.com.au is here in a few months time, and with Superman Escape open at Movie World we think it'd be the perfect excuse to have another meetup. We could spread the fun out over a weekend. Spend Saturday at Warner Bros. Movie World, and then check out one of the other parks on Sunday. Interstate members have no excuse. Take a look at Jetstar and Virgin Blue's prices. Return flights from Sydney or Melbourne to the Gold Coast will be under $200. Come down the Saturday morning and fly home Sunday night. What I want to work out first off is dates that people are most free. It'll have to be a weekend naturally. If we can get people voting and specifying their best dates we can come up with something that best works for most people. I'd like to have a finalised date a week from now so that those that have to can apply for the weekend off from work etc. and you have time to book cheap flights. It'd be a great chance to get to know other members from Roller-Coaster.com.au better, and an awesome excuse to ride Australia's best thrill ride while it's still new. The last meet at Wonderland Sydney was a great success. Let's see if we can top it! Please vote for your most available weekend and post any comments/suggestions and anything else you have on your mind. I've crossed out the weekend of March 11 as I'll be in Adelaide.

Roller-Coaster.com.au's review of Superman Escape: http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/article.php?aid=84 Got your own mini-review of Superman? Why not add it to the site's Opinions section. http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/coaster.p...tion=addopinion

It'd be great to get some of these reviews translated into shorter Opinion entries on the Superman Escape database page. http://www.roller-coaster.com.au/coaster.php?cid=41

The DVD is planned to be released in March to coincide with the end of the first year of subscriptions. It is going ahead, but without WVTP content.

Things have been a bit quiet here for a while, however there are several new updates anticipated for the next month or so. Photo Galleries All-New Dreamworld content. This will include construction update photos and new photos from within the park, including extensive galleries from Blue Lagoon. Further Superman Escape photographs. Wet'n'Wild content. In-park photographs as well as final construction updates. Luna Park Melbourne galleries. Other Content A range of reviews. Updates to the park database to fill in some crucial gaps. Video footage from a number of parks around the country. Site Changes The site's design will undergo changes to give some much needed improvements to various areas, including better navigation throughout and better access to and from the park database. The Opinions system will be modified and made more prominent on the site. The front page will be given a makeover to make sure that the latest content is always easy to find.